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| Members of the SK Telecom T1 "League of Legends" team at Incheon International Airport, Tuesday, before leaving for Berlin to participate in the League of Legends World Championship. / Courtesy of SK Telecom |
By Jun Ji-hye
SK Telecom has set up a joint esports venture with U.S. media and entertainment company Comcast to develop business models in the global esports market, which is projected to be worth more than 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) by 2022, the Korean company said Friday.
The establishment of the joint venture came after the nation's top mobile carrier signed a strategic partnership with Comcast Spectacor to push for various joint businesses in esports and games at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 in Barcelona in February.
SK Telecom is the largest shareholder of the joint venture, dubbed SK Telecom CS T1, with a 55 percent stake.
Comcast and U.S. asset management company Highland Capital Management have invested $41 million as the second-largest and third-largest shareholders, respectively.
Comcast is the world's second-largest cable television and broadcasting company. Comcast Spectacor is responsible for Comcast's sports and entertainment business.
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| SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho, left, shakes hands with Tucker Roberts, who supervises Comcast's esports business, after signing a strategic partnership for global esports collaboration at the Renaissance Hotel in Barcelona. / Courtesy of SK Telecom |
The joint venture's head office in Seoul will be in charge of finding business models, operating esports teams based in Asia and creating professional content, according to SK Telecom.
A subsidiary in Los Angeles will take charge of esports teams based in North America.
"The establishment of SK Telecom CS T1 will give a chance for esports, which began in Korea, to become an export industry," said Huh Seok-joon who heads the SK Telecom's private placement group. "We will swiftly push for esports businesses around the world and expand cooperation with a variety of global esports companies."
According to Goldman Sachs, the scale of the global esports market is expected to reach $2.9 billion in 2022 from $869 million last year.
SK Telecom and Comcast will use their global networks, over-the-top (OTT) service platforms, fifth-generation (5G) networks and media technologies as well as media production capability to develop e-sports business models.
They also plan to expand the number of esports teams from three to 10.
Among them, six teams based in Korea will compete in games including "League of Legends," "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" and "Fortnite."
Four teams based in the United States will compete in games such as "Super Smash Bros." and "Hearthstone."
